Year
by scarlet phlame
Summary: A lot can happen in a Year. Oh, but the things you have to do to survive a Year like that... Nikki centric. Prequel to Protectors.


_**Summary: A lot can happen in a Year. Oh, but the things you have to do to survive a Year like that... Nikki centric.**_

_**This is sort of the Prequel to 'Protectors', explaining why Nikki no longer has an interest in ending the world, like she did in Ending The World And Other Extreme Sports.**_

* * *

The room is nearly empty, for once, and she is glad.

She plasters on a fake smile, forcing herself forward, doing her best to keep her gaze on the ground and not look up. _He_ takes a glass from the tray, and waves a hand dismissively. If she could see his expression now, she would suppose to to be some form of boredom.

"Is there anything else you would like, sir?" she asks, timidly.

He ignores her, and she's learnt very well that his silence is a definite no.

She fingers the tray, stalking out of the room, and sailing into the kitchen with a nervous unease, dispassionately smiling at her fellow servants as she brushes past them.

"ASHA!" _He_ shouts.

She pauses, locked in concern, conflicted, battling with herself to figure out if she should take the tray back. She decides not to, inwardly wincing as she runs back into the room. Gaze on the floor.

"Yes sir?" she asks.

Asha isn't her name. Her name is Nikki. But she can't have him knowing that, especially since they've met before. Her name _was_ Nikki Smith, but now, it's Asha Kimberly. And she can't forget it, not even once, because she knows what one slip means.

The Master slurps loudly from his glass, placing it on the table in front of him, and pulling up his legs to his chair. "You met the Freak, yet?"

"No, sir," she responds, biting back a more... colorful response. She pictures it in her mind. "Sorry, sir."

'Yes, _sir_, of course, _sir_, I have had so much time to meander carelessly about on the surface of this vessel, so obviously I know everyone on the deck,' she'll say. She clenches her fist, picturing and wishing him the most gruesome death possible.

The Master grins avidly at her response, jumping out of his seat. Nikki- no, _Asha_, can't help but flinch at the sudden movement. "Well, perfect!" he declares, voice loud and clear as it sails through the air. "Perfect! You will have to meet him, won't you?"

She drifts through her thoughts, battling her inner turmoil, not sure what to say. "S-sir..."

"Well, then, Asha, aren't you excited?" he asks, cornering her.

"Yes! Yes, master, yes, sir," she says, very quickly. "Yes. Sorry, sir. Sorry. I, er, wasn't... listening. I mean, I was, but I wasn't, er-"

He chuckles. "You're hilarious, Asha."

She manages a weak smile at this, and he lifts up an arm, and she carefully obliges, allowing him to lead her to wherever their destination might be.

* * *

They eventually reach a small, dirty room, and Nikki can't help but gasp at the sight of Captain Jack Harkness, clad in chains and a torn shirt. (were those bullet holes?)

"Asha, I'd like to introduce you to the Freak!" the Master gloats, bored cheer evident in his voice.

Jack looks directly at her, and Nikki winces. He doesn't nod, but the look in his eyes says enough, and she does her best to convey her relief that she is okay into her glance, too. Despite all this happening, they are friends, or were. A lot of people get mad at her for reasons she can't always quite place.

"So what's so important about him?" Nikki asks, trying her best to sound unimpressed and unamused. She knows what she has to do to survive here, and that is _be interesting_. Be interesting enough for the Master to not hate you, but at least not butcher you and hang you on the meat hooks in the kitchen to intimidate the staff.

Nikki used to have something of a sadistic streak, too, although hers wasn't nearly as brutal as the Master's. Torture was something she'd dealt with, too, but she didn't take any pleasure in doing it; it was just a required part of being in her family. She didn't torture any more; especially after seeing and experiencing the aftermath of it herself, personally.

"See, this thing? He can't die," the Master barges on, completely unaware that Nikki is doing her best to not leap at him and strangle him to death, and then broadcast it live on TV. (Like he did with Jack and the Doctor, titling those 'Earth's End', 'Dumb Ways To Die' or '100 Ways To Die on The Valiant'.) The perfect source of revenge; get him back for all the things he's done.

No, but that isn't best way to exact revenge. Nikki'd seen a lot of things, and when she'd been in middle school (although she hadn't been, exactly, in middle school age), the best way to hurt a bully who picked on you was to compliment them. If they teased you about your science board, you called them brilliant and wonderful. Although most people had a better way of getting revenge, aka punching them in the nose.

"Really? Musta been a heck of a training practise, sir," Nikki says, feigning an evil smile. (She's worked on those before, back when she thought the end of the world was really very funny. Now, she isn't so sure.)

"Exactly," the Master says. "Now, see, I've got this lovely little gun, right here," he continues, extracting a cold, metal device from his pocket. "Go ahead and empty a few rounds on him," he encourages.

"Ah, but, sir, I can't take this from you," Nikki stammers, searching desperately for an excuse, "it's your gun, and-"

"You've had experiences with guns before, haven't you?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "I know you have, you've said so. Unless... you were lying?"

"No, no," Nikki backtracks, "it's just... uhm, it's an honour, sir. I didn't think I'd be awarded with this kind of..." her voice trails off, and she plasters on a fake smirk. "All right. Okay."

She does her best not to look as she shoots three bullets into her ex-bosses head.


End file.
